Refrigerated freight containers require an electric motor for driving a refrigerant compressor. The electric motor requires an external electric power source which may be readily found on ship or at the storage site. However, when the container is in transit by rail or truck, a diesel powered generator set is typically used as a means of power supply to the container's refrigeration unit. Commonly known as a “gen set”, the generator set, which typically includes a diesel engine driven generator, is adapted to be face mounted to the frame of the freight container. Representative gensets of this type are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,739,675 and 5,804,946, the entire disclosures of each of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The transport refrigeration industry has established International Standards Organization (ISO) standards for container, refrigeration and genset designs which are integral to the market. ISO standards not only specify operational guidelines, but physical size constraints as well as means of mounting. ISO standards for container designs have established two industry acceptable means of mounting face mounted gensets, pin-on mounts and clamp-on mounts. One type of clamp-on mount designed for a mounting generator set to a transport freight container is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,097, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
To date, genset users have specified one or the other of these mounting mechanisms for use in connection with their refrigerated containers. Thus, a genset provided with clamp-on mounts could not be mounted to a container designed to accommodate pin-on mount gensets. Similarly, a genset provided with pin-on mounts could not be mounted to a container designed to accommodate clamp-on mount gensets. Heretofore, redundancy in mounting means has been viewed as unnecessary.
However, a desire has recently developed in the market for gensets having dual mounting capability, that is gensets that are capable of being face mounted in the field in either a pin-on or a clamp-on style. Such a capability would facilitate the use by relatively large shipping companies of both container designs, that is containers designed to accommodate pin-on mounted gensets, as well as containers designed to accommodate clamp-on mounted gensets.